Trump says Kanye West has 'loony tendencies'

• Trump said Kanye West had "loony tendencies" in an interview with conservative commentator Mollie Hemingway.
• West ran for a longshot bid for president in 2020.

Former President Donald Trump spoke kindly about rapper and fashion designer Kanye West in a series of interviews with conservative political commentator Mollie Hemingway.

But Trump also said West, who ran for president in 2020, had "loony tendencies," according to an excerpt of the interviews published Friday in The Federalist.

The comments came during one of three interviews Hemingway conducted with Trump since he left the White House in January for her upcoming book "Rigged: How The Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections."

Hemingway spoke with Trump about West's 2020 presidential run, writing that the former president "had kind words for West, but said he had 'loony tendencies.'"

Once a vocal supporter of Trump, West made national headlines in 2018 when the then-president invited him to the Oval Office to speak about gang violence and prison reform. Donning a "Make America Great Again" cap, West gave a nearly 10-minute long speech, discussing criminal justice reform, his mental health, and how the MAGA hat gave him "power."

Trump called West's remarks at the time "pretty impressive."

In April 2020, West was in the news again, hinting that he would likely vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election. Yet three months later, West announced in a tweet his own intentions to run for president as an independent candidate.

"I am taking the red hat off," he said in a July 2020 interview with Forbes.

By then, it was already too late in the election cycle for West to appear on the ballot in four states. Still, he mostly self-funded his bid, spending nearly $6 million in the first month of his campaign.

West's longshot bid took another blow when he was left off the ballot in four more states as a result of missing deadlines and failing to meet election requirements. In the end, the award-winning artist was eligible on the ballot in just 12 states and received around 60,000 votes.

West and Trump could possibly duke it out in the next presidential election, as both the musician and the former president have teased 2024 runs.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.